1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the display, arrangement and rotation of products such as food boxes, cans and the like in a supermarket, and more particularly to an improved product display, arrangement and rotation system and method in which products displayed on a shelf can easily be arranged or rotated to have the products' expiration dates kept safely up to date and to conveniently position the products manually near the front edge of the shelves for improved visual exposure and effortless selection by consumers. Further, the invention relates to a system and method for maintaining product labels in view of a consumer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Retail stores relying on the consumers to serve themselves have recognized the importance of having products on the shelves near the front edge of the shelves so that the products can be readily seen by consumers and easily reached by the consumers. This merchandising plan is subverted without any nefarious intentions by consumers who purchase the products by removing the products from the shelf, ordinarily from the front of the line of products. As time goes by, the sale of the products results in the removal of additional products until only products formerly in the back remain. In many cases, the products near the back of the shelves are difficult for consumers to reach, particularly when the products are on relatively high shelves and the consumers are shorter than the height of these shelves.
Well operated retail stores have clerks move around the store periodically to check the status of goods and make appropriate corrections by moving products toward the front. The cost of workers today, even for unskilled clerks in supermarkets, is relatively high and can substantially reduce the potential operating profits of the stores. Accordingly, many stores elect to accept poor product displays and awkwardly positioned goods to save on the operating costs. Naturally, this adversely affects sales; however, no quantitative measure is available.
From a subjective point of view, anyone who has encountered a display in which a preferred product was difficult to reach can appreciate the discouraging interest in straining oneself to make a purchase. Consumers often search for a clerk to reach a product, thereby interrupting the clerk from his assigned duties. On the other hand, a determined consumer may risk injury in climbing to reach a product, thereby creating a potential liability for the retail store.
The rotation of products and especially perishable products is a major concern for retail stores and consumers. Perishable products must be sold by a certain date or be pulled from the shelves because of spoilage. If the products are not rotated to the front of the shelf, then as newer products are placed on the shelves, then the older products remain near the rear of the shelves out of the reach of the shopper. Having these older products remain in the rear increases the likelihood that they will not be sold and will be pulled from the shelves or worse yet that they will be purchased by a consumer after their expiration dates have passed. Consumers sometimes forget to review the expiration date of a product and rely on the retail store to maintain up to date safe products. The retail store owner is at the mercy of the product stocker to rotate the products. With the current manual system, where a stocker must manually remove each product by hand, a product stocker may be more inclined to not rotate and just put the newer products towards the front of the shelf, thereby leaving the store open to lost products and lost customers who get sick on spoiled products. A system for the easy rotation of products is needed to decrease the likelihood that a product will have to be discarded after reaching its expiration date.
There have been attempts in the prior art-to provide systems for overcoming the problem of providing an easily operated display system for presenting products near to front of the shelves to enable consumers to reach the products easily. Some of these are discussed in the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,463 to Steven K. Gold uses springs to "automatically" push items to the front position on the display shelf. Similar systems are currently in use in highly specialized displays such as for cigarette packages. One of the problems with the '463 patent is that to move the cigarette packages forward to a suitable position, the system must be carefully engineered for the weight of the packages as well as the length of the desired movement from the display being full of cigarette packages until only one package is left. This places critical requirements on the spring because it must be selected to be compatible with the weight of the products as well as the distance through which movement is required for substantially all of the products. After the first product is taken, almost a full line of products must be moved. When only a few products remain, the force required for movement is substantially less. This system does not facilitate the rotation the efficient and quick rotation of products for the health and welfare of consumers.
The '463 patent may be satisfactory for a relatively light product such as packages of cigarettes, but it would not be suitable for many heavier goods, such as canned soup, because the heavier goods make the requirements for the spring extremely difficult to fulfill. The spring must be much stronger to properly move a line-up of heavy soup cans and the length of movement required would be a difficult problem to overcome. Typically, food display shelves vary in depth from 24 inches down to 10 inches or less. Anyone who has had experience with springs can appreciate immediately the enormous problems in trying to install such a system throughout a food store with all the variables involved such as heavy products, light products, as well as the differences in the required movement of the spring from compressed to extended to be compatible with product package sizes and various shelf depths. Rotating products is also made difficult by the spring. The old products would need to be removed. The system has no mechanism set up to accept the old products while the newer products are being used to force the spring back. Rotating products with this system is more difficult than having no system in place. Indeed, the likelihood of clerks not rotating may go up if this system is used.
Another problem, besides the springs, with the '463 patent is that the "supporting structure" disclosed in the patent is a complex device which must be especially sized for all the different depths of shelves on which it might he mounted. The width of the device in the '463 patent would need to be easily adjustable. There would be some installations which need to be only a few inches wide, others larger. The store personnel would not be able to install such a system universally. It would require a trained technician with the special tools and skills to do the installations by cutting the base unit into smaller sections. The cost and complexity of the system disclosed in the '463 patent has apparently discouraged its use and inhibited it from being a popular system.
As with any system used in a supermarket or the like, the system must be both practical and cost effective. It is unlikely that a store would be willing to spend a large amount of money for the control of a single row of merchandise when there are thousands of items in a store which require a comparable system.
Another problem with the system disclosed in the '463 patent is that once a consumer has removed an item from the display and decides not to buy it, it will be necessary for the consumer to overcome the power of the forward thrust of the spring to place the item back into the queue. Most consumers become annoyed at such inconvenience and it is likely that the item will be left somewhere else in the store because most people usually refuse to be bothered with a system requiring some effort.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,126 to Foster also uses a spring arrangement to advance a row of items forward; however, rather than a coil spring used in the '463 patent, it uses a ribbon spring similar to the spring used in a tape measure. The system disclosed in the '126 patent is very effective if used for the weight of the item it is designed for, but it is not adaptable to a wide range of items of different weights. Accordingly, the '126 patent has the same limitations as the system disclosed in the '463 patent. Additionally, products having expiration dates come in all shapes and sizes and need to be rotated. This spring also does not have a mechanism that facilitates the efficient rotation of products including perishable products.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,125 to Kunz is similar to the '126 patent, with a similar "tape measure" type spring except that a protective wire grid has been added to prevent a glass jar from falling out of the device. Thus, the '125 patent has similar disadvantages as the '126 patent. Also, the wire grid makes removing old products for the rotation of products even more difficult leading to the likelihood that it will not be performed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,546 to Crum is very similar to the '126 patent with a "tape measure" type spring to propel the row of items forward. The '546 patent has the same limitations in that it must be specifically tailored to a particular item such as cigarette packages, or birthday candles packages which are similar in size and shape to a cigarette package. Furthermore, it must be designed specifically for the display shelf it is to be mounted upon. The system of the '546 patent is currently in use in stores and it appears satisfactory for relatively small, light weight products such as cigarette boxes and birthday candle cartons. It may be feasible to construct a larger system based on the '546 patent for other specific packages, shelf sizes, weights of items, etc., but it is unlikely that this would be cost effective.